ABSTRACT
The majority of the world’s population now lives in urban areas (United Nations, 2012). Mental health problems are known to be prevalent in the rapidly urbanizing megacities of low-income countries and range at the third place in the list of the ten leading factors of the burden of disease in low-income countries in a projection for 2030 (Mathers and Loncar, 2006). Urbanization is most pronounced in Asia having the largest number of megacities, that is, cities with more than 10 million inhabitants worldwide (United Nations, 2012). There are several characteristics of rapidly urbanizing megacities of low-income countries that can contribute to poor mental health, including, social segregation, lack of infrastructure, and exposure to ongoing adversity and life stressors (Douglas, 2012). However, there is a paucity of data about the relation between characteristics of urban environments and mental health (United Nations, 2012; Riley et al., 2007).
